In the Media

The NORML team is often quoted and interviewed across the media world. Check out some of the most recent media mentions below. If you are a member of the media interested in interviewing a member of the NORML team, please email media@norml.org.

But that didn't stop Grinspoon's fight against America's draconian drug laws. In the 80s, he worked with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to advocate for sensible drug laws. In the 90s, he published another highly influential book on cannabis. Despite - or perhaps because of those efforts, Harvard again refused to offer him a promotion in 1997.

Oliver, who is also the executive director for NORML’s Washington chapter and a national NORML board member, expects to see some sort of resolution or clarification coming from the federal government soon.

NORML political director Justin Strekal told Marijuana Moment: “Over two million registered medical marijuana patients throughout the legal markets can attest to the attorney general’s newfound revelation. What we need is better research on consumer grade marijuana and lawful protections for legal markets, not further deliberation from the DoJ.”

NORML’s main lobbyist in Capitol Hill, Political Director Justin Strekal, also told Cannabis Now that he thinks Schumer’s 420 announcement is a positive step forward for federal cannabis decriminalization.

“With this announcement, Senator Schumer has effectively made it clear that a legislative priority for the Democratic Party is to end the federal prohibition of marijuana,” Strekal said.

“These conclusions are consistent with those of prior studies — in particular, recent longitudinal twin studies reporting that cannabis use is not independently associated with any residual change in intelligence quotient or executive function,” said Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Of the nearly 531,000 marijuana arrests reported to the FBI in 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, an estimated 12 percent of arrests occurred in Texas. (Marijuana arrest data for the states of Florida, Illinois, and Washington, DC were not reported that year.) Six addition states – Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia – also reported 20,000+ marijuana arrests in 2016. Here is a look at the top 5 states on this list.

California Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher—once a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan—is a known medical marijuana user. Rohrabacher stated marijuana use has been the most effective treatment he has found for his arthritis. Rohrabacher said this at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML): “I tried it about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time…in a year-and-a-half that I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone.”

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), emphasizes the fact that this particular study assessed rats, and therefore, it doesn’t accurately explain how weed smoke effects humans. “Longitudinal studies in humans haven’t replicated these results,” he says. And science corroborates his claim: A 2017 study found that lifetime marijuana use isn’t associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (including blood clots, heart attack and/or stroke).

"Descheduling marijuana should and will likely be a litmus test in the 2020 Democratic primary," said Erik Altieri, the executive director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "As we have seen, leaders from the party are seeing that leading the charge on this is not just good policy but is good politics."

“It’s important to note that African-Americans only make up 20 percent of Virginia’s population yet are arrested three times more than whites for marijuana possession when use is equal between races,” said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director at Virginia NORML.

"Historically, taxation is rarely a pathway to social justice," Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, told Salon by email. "Politicians possess the discretion to spend tax revenues as they wish, virtually irregardless of the public’s priorities. By contrast, ending the prosecution, incarceration, discrimination, and stigmatization of responsible adult cannabis consumers is a pathway toward social justice."

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a consultant on the MyCanary app, said it was developed in preparation for mass legalization. There are now 29 states that have legalized recreational or medical pot.

“Because of that, there is a need and a desire for responsible adults use cannabis, to have a way to be able to check themselves prior to driving, to make sure they are not impaired before they go behind the wheel,” he said. “This is just a practical way to empower the consumer to make responsible choices.”

“In the old days, it would often be 24 hours before you got through the system and were arraigned,” says David C. Holland, executive and legal director of the Empire State chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Now, they’re just taking people back to the precinct and writing them a desk appearance ticket for the violation,” he says. “It’s a summons telling you to go straight to court without the detour through central booking. You’re processed, but you’re released from the precinct in a matter of a couple of hours.”

But Strekal, of NORML, said that simply ending criminalization isn't enough, and that communities harmed by the drug war should be able to benefit from the newly legal economy.

“As states start dialing back their war on marijuana consumers, it is important that those who were impacted by this oppressive prohibition are able to see previous harms remedied, and be provided the opportunity to participate in the benefits that come along with legalization and regulation," he said.

"With Senator Sanders cosponsoring the Marijuana Justice Act alongside Senators Booker and Gillibrand, it’s time for the party to speak with one voice that they will legalize marijuana and expunge the criminal convictions of the millions who are being held back from achieving both employment and the American dream," NORML's Strekal said.

"With this announcement, Sen. Schumer has effectively made it clear that a legislative priority for the Democratic Party is to end the federal prohibition of marijuana," said Justin Strekal, political director at National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Leaders in the Democratic Party are increasingly recognizing that leading the charge on legalization is not only good policy, but good politics," Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, said in a press release Thursday. "The constituencies which the party claims to stand for are the ones who have most felt the weight of prohibition and the lifelong consequences of prohibition."

The festival – taking place on April 20 – is being organized by Aiken NORML, a local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and the event will be held Friday at Seeds Cafe, Farm and Market, 245 White Pond Road in Williston. The festival will begin at 4:20 p.m.

When asked about the gap between public officials opinions and that of the general public, Erik Altieri, executive director for NORML, an organization that is dedicated to moving public opinion toward the legalization of adult use of marijuana, did not see the gap as a problem.

'Consistent with past votes, we anticipate that voters in Utah and Oklahoma this November will decide to amend the law in a manner that comports with available science, public opinion, and the rapidly changing cultural and legal status of cannabis,' Erik Altieri, executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told Daily Mail Online in a statement.

Keith Stroup, Legal Counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) asserts, “The City Council appears ready to fully legalize and regulate marijuana sales in the District, but Congress has blocked that for now. So the only legal source of marijuana within the District is to cultivate your own marijuana, and most smokers do not want to spend the time or effort to do that. So obviously there is a thriving ‘gray market’ that provides marijuana to those who smoke, including the ruse of ‘gifting.”

The government's "Schedule I" designation is the most restrictive classification for controlled substances, reserved for the most dangerous, most addictive drugs with no medical value. Heroin and PCP are Schedule I drugs, and despite an overwhelming body of scientific evidence supporting its medical value and safety, so is marijuana.